Virgil van Dijk

[Manchester_lalala]

No mate what's flawed is being a poster on a forum and thinking genuinely you've got a better insight into which positions require prioritising in the transfer market than the guy who spends all day every day working with the squad.

If you did a survey with 100 neutral fans asking which position we'd be most fucked in if we had an injury, majority would say centre back. We need a centre back, Jonny Evans is laughable. If Kompany goes down, we've would have stones, otamendi and evans. Not good enough. Like I said, peps not immune for making mistakes. Neither is txiki.

 

[Marvin]

VVD would not be buying for the sake of it, would set us up for years to come. £60 million for VVD or £30 million for Evans. Now let me see....

Sooner or later we have to give one of our centre-backs a chance. Vidic was poor in his season. Centre-back like goal keeper is a position which relies on communication and organisation so new players come in and often struggle, and it's even more difficult at City because we can't really afford to allow a player time to settle in on the job so they are in out in out.

I thought last season that our defending against teams on the counter-attack was the weakest part of our play. We'd dominate games, besiege the opponents box, and then they'd counter-attack and slice straight through us. In fact Bravo's poor stats possibly came down to the very clear cut opportunities our opponents got.

This season our central defence should be stronger because they are protected by quick full backs, and they have a solid keeper behind them (I hope), but still we don't have much cover in front. Toure played quite a lot last season and is good on the ball, but useless when we lose the ball. This part of our game i still a risk. We have no defensive midfield.
Kompany starts the season fit. That is obviously an advantage too, but I can't see him playing 60 games. That means Stones and Otamendi have to play together at some point. Last season I thought those two were very poor without Kompany, but I really rate Stones. I think there's a strong argument for a squad player who will allow Stones to develop rather than buy VVD and push Stones down a rung. Stones if he starts doing the basics of defending better can become a really top class defender.

So in brief, central defence is a top priority, but the solution maybe not be to spend £60m and go back to square 1 again.

 

[Marvin]

No mate what's flawed is being a poster on a forum and thinking genuinely you've got a better insight into which positions require prioritising in the transfer market than the guy who spends all day every day working with the squad.

Scrap Bluemoon then? We've all got opinions on football. The beauty about football is that everyone can be an expert and although a coach may know all the ins and outs they can still make mistakes.

 

[cookster]

Yes but you don't know if signing Evans/not signing VVD is a mistake as neither thing has happened yet. By all means discuss the relative merits of the players, but you've completely written one off as being shit and a rag, then in the next breath tried to argue the toss with me about Otamendi and Mangala by saying VVD ticks the boxes because he's captain of his team and has got PL experience.

I won't mention you advocating in another thread we should sign the gold plated donkey Diego Costa ... you reckon he's good on the ball ;)

It's quite simple really, for my sins, I watch a lot football and not just us. Based on what I've since Jonny Evans has found his level, VVD is already better and would progress further with better players around him. Not rocket science just my view.

As for Costa, if Sanchez isn't achievable then I'm in. Different to Jesus and Kun, can play better on his own than both, however would probably get targeted by refs even more if he played for us.

 

[cookster]

No mate what's flawed is being a poster on a forum and thinking genuinely you've got a better insight into which positions require prioritising in the transfer market than the guy who spends all day every day working with the squad.

Flip that to your unconditional support for Pellegrini and then you have a valid argument.

 

[BillyShears]

If you did a survey with 100 neutral fans asking which position we'd be most fucked in if we had an injury, majority would say centre back. We need a centre back, Jonny Evans is laughable. If Kompany goes down, we've would have stones, otamendi and evans. Not good enough. Like I said, peps not immune for making mistakes. Neither is txiki.

Firstly, neutral fans know fuck all about City. Secondly WITHOUT Vinny for most of last season our main problem was not taking the chances we created. Our defensive record wasn't hugely different from the season we won the title under Pellegrini, the major difference was the number of goals we scored.

On Evans, just because you don't think he's good enough doesn't mean he isn't. I suspect if you surveyed the same 100 neutral supporters and asked them who's a better defender, Evans, Stones, or Otamendi they'd all say Evans.

 

[BillyShears]

It's quite simple really, for my sins, I watch a lot football and not just us. Based on what I've since Jonny Evans has found his level, VVD is already better and would progress further with better players around him. Not rocket science just my view.

As for Costa, if Sanchez isn't achievable then I'm in. Different to Jesus and Kun, can play better on his own than both, however would probably get targeted by refs even more if he played for us.

That's funny because I know a fair few people who watch football for a living who think Evans is better than all the CB's we currently have barring Vinny. They find that their view is not rocket science and that most City supporters are absolutely deluded in thinking Evans isn't good enough to play for us.

Costa is unprofessional, and nowhere near fit enough to play for City under Pep (and never has been at any point in his career). He isn't good on the ball which is more important for our forwards than it is for our defenders.

 

[BillyShears]

Flip that to your unconditional support for Pellegrini and then you have a valid argument.

I don't need to flip it to anything. Managers ALWAYS know better than supporters which positions they require reinforcements in. They're the ones who train the squad day in and day out. I think you're mistaking identifying which position to buy for with identifying which players to target.

 

[cookster]

That's funny because I know a fair few people who watch football for a living who think Evans is better than all the CB's we currently have barring Vinny. They find that their view is not rocket science and that most City supporters are absolutely deluded in thinking Evans isn't good enough to play for us.

Costa is unprofessional, and nowhere near fit enough to play for City under Pep (and never has been at any point in his career). He isn't good on the ball which is more important for our forwards than it is for our defenders.

I'll keep my silence, if you "know a fair few people who watch football for a living" then we the masses are deluded.

I'm just off to watch Sky Sports, they have loads of people "who watch football for a living" so I'll hang on every word of Merson, Thompson etc.

 

[come-on-barney]

Sooner or later we have to give one of our centre-backs a chance. Vidic was poor in his season. Centre-back like goal keeper is a position which relies on communication and organisation so new players come in and often struggle, and it's even more difficult at City because we can't really afford to allow a player time to settle in on the job so they are in out in out.

I thought last season that our defending against teams on the counter-attack was the weakest part of our play. We'd dominate games, besiege the opponents box, and then they'd counter-attack and slice straight through us. In fact Bravo's poor stats possibly came down to the very clear cut opportunities our opponents got.

This season our central defence should be stronger because they are protected by quick full backs, and they have a solid keeper behind them (I hope), but still we don't have much cover in front. Toure played quite a lot last season and is good on the ball, but useless when we lose the ball. This part of our game i still a risk. We have no defensive midfield.
Kompany starts the season fit. That is obviously an advantage too, but I can't see him playing 60 games. That means Stones and Otamendi have to play together at some point. Last season I thought those two were very poor without Kompany, but I really rate Stones. I think there's a strong argument for a squad player who will allow Stones to develop rather than buy VVD and push Stones down a rung. Stones if he starts doing the basics of defending better can become a really top class defender.

So in brief, central defence is a top priority, but the solution maybe not be to spend £60m and go back to square 1 again.

Totally agree on Stones. If we are going down this route rather give Tosin some game time rather than buy Evans. Not because he is an ex rag but because he just doesn't have the pace for a high line setup.